Originally Posted by
EdmFlyBoi
It is going to be a long time before consistency returns (if ever). There is going to be two different themes for the the narrow bodies across both mainline and Rouge with the likely majority of aircraft without lie flat seating being the "Dream Cabin" and the remainder being "Glowing Hearted". The XLR's and 78X with all be "Glowing Hearted" so you will know what you will get on those aircraft. It seems highly likely that AC is working with Collins and it will be the Aurora for the XLR (since it is herringbone and not reverse herringbone like the Adient seat) and the Elements for the 78X (willing to wager on that). Then the rest of the wide body fleet that AC plans to keep for a longer period of time will slowly get reconfigured with the Elements seat. I would think that the entire 787 fleet get reconfigured, though whether they start with the oldest first is a wildcard. The 788's are the oldest and some are pretty beat up. It seems pretty unlikely that they could get more than 20 J seats between door 1 and 2 (and they have said they only want J between door 1 and 2). They could tighten up the galleys and shift things a bit to get 12 seats in the D and G rows but that probably won't occur. Same could be said for the 789, but I suspect they will stay at 30 J seats. The 77L's aren't likely to get reconfigured based on what Gallardo has said about the aircraft, but I guess that depends on what AC orders to replace them (I am hoping for an early A350 order cuz I think it's a great aircraft to fly on). And clearly the A330's don't get a new cabin as most of them have just been reconfigured. So essentially AC is going to have two themes in their cabin's for a long time. Most passengers likely won't notice as the Super Diamond and Elements seats are pretty similar, but true consistency will likely never occur.
Variations already exist within the "Dream Cabin", 787-8s fleet have Panasonic ex2 system and -9s have ex3
If I remember correctly, the some of the HD 77W delivered prior to 2015 also have ex2 installed (or did they retain the Swiss seats? Not 100% if they refit the economy cabin when they got rid of the vantage seat)
ex2 has a controller in the armrest in Economy class and the screen is 720p instead of 1080p, the difference in resolution is somewhat noticable, especially in J.
Glowing hearted is mostly an evolution to the Dream Cabin and changes to the colour scheme. I don't think many people would care or notice... We are just vocal minorities.
Speaking of A350, there is now a new undisclosed customer ordering 8* A350-1000
It's unlikely to be AC, but not zero (unlike my chance of marrying Anna Kendrick). 8* A350-1000 should be enough to replace the 77L fleet + 1 or 2 new ULR destinations.
However, it's a very small fleet for a new type unless they can pool pilots with the A330 (I don't think it's allowed on this side of the pond + other unions rules), or they are intending to order more near the 77W replacement cycle in the late 2030s.